Xerox keeps a 'lessons learned database' to capture key insights from previous design projects, to ensure that mistakes are not repeated and that lessons on best practice can be taken forward to future projects.
Today the design department is making use of Six Sigma tools to make many of its activities more robust and data driven. A good example, says Wynn, is user testing which utilises quite rough, low fidelity hardware prototypes. ‘No one likes using rough prototypes, so often user testing is left until late in a programme, by which time changes are very costly to make. Using Six Sigma, we can statistically remove the effects of hardware fidelity from our test results so we get good, early data on usability before we’ve committed to tooling and costly manufacturing of production-representative hardware.’
For Wynn, equipping his designers with the skills they need to interact successfully with the wider organisation is a key priority. He does this by ensuring that they receive training in business strategy in addition to specialist design skills. In particular, all Xerox designers are trained to use the Six Sigma and Quality Function Deployment techniques in use with the rest of the organisation. This, he says, helps to give them a common language with which to communicate with other teams internally.
You can see a diagram of how the Xerox design strategy is structured by downloading a PDF of Xerox's Planning for intercept model.
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As important as specific skills training, however, is the design team’s ability to build relationships with others and form an effective internal network in the organisation. It is through informal relationships and their ability to communicate their creative ideas effectively, says Wynn, that his designers will be able to bring the strongest influence to bear during the critical fuzzy front end of projects.
'We don’t want to force ourselves into projects, we’d rather the teams said "it would be really useful to get some input from the design team now,"' he explains. In fact, Wynn contends that a designer mentality permeates the business, in that a large number of Xerox’s engineers and mechanics would call themselves a designer.
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